(CNN) – Kathleen Sebelius, the outgoing health and human services secretary, said the decision to step down from her post was hers - not the Obama administration's.

After seeing Obamacare through its botched rollout and the eight-week fix period, and past the 7 million sign-up goal after the open enrollment deadline, Sebelius announced last week she would step down, saying Sunday it was a "logical time to leave."

(CNN) - In their weekly addresses, the White House and the Republican Party described different visions for how to fix an economy that still struggles to show consistent growth.

Friday's monthly jobs report showed the economy picking up slightly after a lull over the winter, but signaled that a healthy jobs market is still years away.

President Obama, in his weekly address from the White House, pushed for job creation and training, access to education and raising the minimum wage, while Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, in the GOP's weekly address, blamed Democrats for an approach that he says throws "billions of dollars each year" at problems in the job market without making fundamental improvements.FULL POST

Mitch McConnell came strapped to the Conservative Political Action Conference this week.

The Senate minority leader, 72, held his rifle mightily overhead before presenting it to his pal, Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, as part of the NRA Courage Under Fire lifetime achievement award.

(CNN) – Sen. Tim Scott declined Tuesday to "reflect seriously" on comments made by a civil rights activist who accused Scott, the only African-American Republican in the Senate, of being a puppet for the tea party.

"Instead, I will honor the memory of Dr. King by being proactive in holding the door for others and serving my fellow man," Scott said in a statement. "And Rev. (William) Barber will remind me and others of what not to do."FULL POST

(CNN) – Sen. Tim Scott is passing on throwing his support behind Lindsey Graham, his fellow South Carolina Republican senator, who faces four conservative primary challengers as he runs for re-election next year.

Instead, Scott, who was appointed to the Senate late last year, said he would focus on his own election next year.FULL POST

Washington (CNN) - Organizers of Wednesday's 50th anniversary March on Washington did not invite the nation's only African-American senator to speak at the civil rights commemoration, his office said, a sign of the complicated politics of racial equality.

Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina was appointed to the position in January, is currently the only black senator and is one of only eight African-Americans to ever serve in the U.S. Senate.FULL POST

Greenville, South Carolina (CNN) - Surrounded by a massive American flag, a modest late-summer crowd and three governors with possible designs on the White House, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley announced Monday that she will seek a second term.

At a brief, sun-drenched outdoor rally in downtown Greenville, Haley, one of the most vulnerable members of the 2010 class of Republican governors, asked for another four years in office and rattled off her accomplishments: more than 37,000 new jobs across the state, welfare reform, tax cuts and rigid opposition to President Barack Obama's health care reform law.

(CNN) – The controversial Keystone XL pipeline was the subject of Saturday’s weekly Republican address, delivered by Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.

The State Department is in the final stages of reviewing the Canada-to-Texas pipeline. Proponents of the project, many of them Republicans that Obama is looking to compromise with on key issues, say Keystone will enable U.S. energy independence, create jobs and develop important industrial infrastructure.FULL POST

(CNN) – Republican Rep. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the new appointee to replace Sen. Jim DeMint, indicated Wednesday he may oppose any gun control legislation in the Senate next Congress, saying instead the larger issue is one of "moral decay."

"I think the solutions are not necessarily in new legislation. Perhaps the solution starts with us examining the mental condition of the person and the persons in the past that have had the desire to create the atrocities we have seen recently," he said on CNN's "Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien."FULL POST